Pipeline disaster kills over 100

At least 100 people have been killed after a fuel pipeline exploded in a Nigerian village.

A fireball engulfed homes and schools at Ijegun, near the west African country's biggest city Lagos, after an earthmover ruptured the pipeline.

Many of the dead, who included schoolchildren, were killed in the ensuing stampede as people fled the fire.

A Red Cross official said: "About 100 people have so far been confirmed dead from the fire.

"We have so far rescued more than 20 people with injuries and taken them to hospital for treatment."

Fuel pipelines criss-cross Africa's top oil-producing nation and explosions and fires are frequent.

Previous pipeline blasts in Nigeria have been caused by vandals who drilled holes in feeder lines used to distribute imported fuel to steal petrol and sell it on the black market.

Nigeria is the world's number eight oil exporter, but most Nigerians live on less than £1 per day and many are prepared to take huge risks to obtain free fuel.

At least 45 people were burnt to death last December in another village on the outskirts of Lagos when fuel they were stealing from a buried pipeline went up in flames.

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